


I'll Most Likely Send You Home in the Morning

by ILiveForSubtext



Series: What Was Left Undone [1]
Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ILiveForSubtext/pseuds/ILiveForSubtext
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The girls reflect on daily interactions since hitting the road together.</p>
<p>Short post-episode fluff following Sins of the Past, the first in my series of post-episode fics with a one-shot for every episode of XWP.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Most Likely Send You Home in the Morning

**Author's Note:**

> I think a bit of explanation is in order before we get started. Time and time again I’ve started watching Xena and stopped, not because I didn’t like it but because I adored it so much I dreaded the day there would be no new Xena to fall back on.
> 
> I’ve decided to watch the show in its entirety, finally. In order to delay the inevitable lack of content in my future I’ve decided to have some fun with it: I will write a post-episode fanfic for every episode after I watch it. I’ve been so steeped in the fandom that I have a basic idea of the future story but really not much beyond that, so I think it will be fun to create post-episode tangents as things go along, before my mind is bogged down by canon that might make some of my ideas impossible.
> 
> So that is what you have found. This fic is a standalone fic that takes place after Sins of the Past. My fics may range from fluff to PWP as time goes on, but all will be Xena/Gabrielle and most will be a reflection on events of the previous episode, with no new plot introduced. Some will be short, some will be long. I hope you enjoy.

_"I won't stay home."_

Xena stirred the fire, watching the flames lick across the charred branch, barely registering the sleeping form on the other side of the fire pit. She knew she should turn Gabrielle away; life on the road was hard enough, let alone a life on the road with a warlord, even one working on reformation such as herself. They'd already had their fair share of danger and they'd only just met.

She needed to send the farm girl home in the morning. This wasn't a place for her, wasn't a life for someone so innocent.

_"I'm not the little girl that my parents wanted me to be."_

But who is, really? Xena's thoughts turned back to the tavern, to her own mother. Did she wish for a warlord? A warrior known for her ruthlessness and cruelty? Of course not. And yet here they were, finally on a path to making amends after so many years of bitter blood between them. If Xena's relationship with her mother, given all they'd been through, could be repaired what excuse did Gabrielle have to run off in the night with a merciless warlord over some expectations of her parents?

No, the girl needed to go. It was what was best.

Xena stabbed at the dying embers and sighed, watching the sleeping girl at the other side of the fire pit. She would send her home in the morning. It's what's best for everyone, even if Gabrielle didn't realize it.

* * *

 

_"You know, I'm sending you home in the morning."_

Gabrielle smirked into her bedroll as she listened to the fire crackle behind her. Every night it was the same.

"I'm sending you home in the morning," Xena would say matter-of-factly as she lit the cook-fire and Gabrielle smoothed out the ground to lay out her bedroll.

"I won't stay home." She'd say flippantly, unfurling the blankets with a whoosh that covered the exasperated sigh the warrior always gave behind her.

Xena had spent a fortnight threatening to send her home each evening. But Gabrielle knew the truth of it; that when Xena had the watch she would spend more time staring at her through the fire and listening to it crackle than at the woods, alert for bandits and marauders. She knew she was growing on Xena and so the threats to send her away held less and less weight as time went on, as they ventured further and further from Potidaea. It was almost a game of theirs now: Xena threatening to turn Gabrielle homeward, Gabrielle assuring her she would never be rid of her no matter how hard she tried. And somehow Gabrielle knew that's how both of them wanted it to be.


End file.
